Hyper-personalizing European banking experience with AI

European consumers continue to bank with traditional institutions, but many are clearly less satisfied with the experience.

Earlier this year, a leading digital banking platform provider published the results of a survey of 6,300 online banking users across Europe.

Although 82 percent of respondents used a traditional bank as their main provider, 26 percent had switched banks in the past because of poor digital services, and would not hesitate to do so again.

Also, 47 percent said that they would feel more satisfied if their bank improved the quality of digital services.

Customers specifically called out personalized recommendations in this context.

What do customers want? With the digitalization of banking, seamless transaction experiences have become the norm, standardized across banks with little to differentiate them.

Digital channels are efficient, but impersonal.

For the majority of customers, they are a way to complete quick, functional tasks such as checking account balance.

This has gradually emotionally distanced consumers from their banks.

And therein lies the dilemma: The same consumers who are embracing digital banking are demanding more personal interactions with their bank.

For instance, 59 percent of European consumers want financial recommendations tailored to their individual needs.

Banks that fail to provide this will see customers walking away.

The good news is that artificial intelligence technologies are now enabling banking institutions to meet these seemingly irreconcilable expectations.

Where previous digital technologies allowed some – mostly segment-level – personalization, AI is driving hyper-personalization of digital banking experiences, in real-time, at scale.